In September 2005, CAMP Rehoboth was given $10,000 from the Robert V. Hauff and John F. Dreeland Foundation. (Shown are Milton Gordon, CAMP Development Director Beth Fitton, and Bill Hromnak.) Foundation trustee, Milton Gordon, had spoken to their committee on behalf of CAMP Rehoboth. Milton and his partner recently relocated to Rehoboth Beach and we asked him to provide us with a glimpse of the two men for whom the Foundation is named.

You don’t have to play the lottery to be a winner. You just have to know someone who did.

I first met Robert and John in 1971 when I moved into my new coop. They met on a transatlantic voyage on the SS France in 1963, and spent most of their weekends together since then. Their lifestyles were so different that if they lived together, their relationship most likely would not have lasted. One of the things they had in common was taking cruises.

John was a homebody. He spent much of his time taking care of his father who went blind in his later years. One of his favorite past-times was watching old movies late at night.

Robert’s mother died during child birth and he was raised by an aunt and uncle. As a young man he skated with Sonia Hennie and was part of the troop that appeared on her television special.

From the time lotto started in New York, Robert and John always played. It was September 1987 when they won. They were now able to live the life of their dreams. A new car, new apartments, taking cruises, driving to Atlantic City to gamble, everything anyone could ask for. The nicest thing of all was they remained the same. They shared their new wealth by taking their friends on a 1991 RSVP cruise; they even took Bill and I and two other friends on a second cruise in 1992.

As I said, you don’t have to play lotto to be a winner.

In 1994, the doctors found that John had an aneurysm on his brain. During the operation it burst before the doctors could reach it, and although John survived he was never quite the same. His sense of humor was gone; he was a different person. All that money and there was nothing that could bring the old John back. For the next five years Robert did what he could. John was never left alone. Then it happened. In February 1999, while out for dinner one night, John had a second aneurysm, this time it was fatal. In less than an hour he was dead. Robert was never the same after that. Seven months later he died of a broken heart.

The foundation was created from the balance of the lottery. As I said before, you don’t have to play lotto to win. Over the years many charities were winners. Christa House (provides Hospice-like surroundings for those dying of AIDS), Maria’s Kitchen (soup kitchen attached to The Church of St Paul the Apostle), City Harvest Inc., the Catholic Guild for the Blind, Lambda Legal, American Foundation for AIDS Research (AMFAR), Gay Men’s Health Crisis, and thanks to my fellow trustees, CAMP Rehoboth.